Stellar models suggest that rotation can have drastic impact on the evolution of massive stars, but various aspects of these effects remain highly uncertain. One of the best place to study these effects is in #0 Doradus, which contains a very rich population of massive star.

Oscar Ramırez-Agudelo (PhD student at the University of Amsterdam) together with various members of the VFTS collaboration present the distribution of rotation rates of massive stars for over 200 presumably single stars in the Tarantula Nebula. The authors find that most of the stars rotate with less than 20% of their break velocity. The distribution also shows a tail of rapid rotators extending extreme rotational velocities of 600 km/s.

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Selma de Mink is an astrophysicist, assistant professor, MacGillavry and Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Amsterdam and PI of the BinCosmos program supported by an ERC Starting Grant. Contact: S.E.deMink AT uva.nl

BinCosmos (ERC Starting Grant)

The BinCosmos program (PI de Mink) aims to address key open questions concerning the role of massive binaries throughout our cosmic history.